For parents

Your kid is holding another human over her head.

Let's make sure she's strong enough for it.

The stunts went higher, the skills got harder, and the strength work never caught up with them. Nobody trained her for that part.

I write eight week strength programs for the position she actually stands in, so she is strong enough for what her coach is already asking her to do.

Mel Bull, national champion athlete and coach
3x national champion Gold U.S. National Team Coach U.S. Junior National Team 12 years in the gym Who is Mel? →
The question I get most

Is lifting safe for my daughter?

Yes, under three conditions, and the conditions are the entire answer. Take away any one of them and my answer changes.

Somebody qualified has to be watching

This is the one people treat as a formality and it is the one that matters most. A qualified set of eyes is not a parent holding a phone. It is someone who can see the rep going wrong and stop it before the third one.

Every one of my programs assumes that person exists. If there is nobody in the room who can correct her, the honest answer to your question changes, and I would rather tell you that than sell you something.

Technique comes before weight, every time

Weight stops where her form stops. Not where the workout says, and not where her teammate is.

The gates are specific by position. A base does not add weight until she can hold an empty bar locked out overhead in a squat. A backspot does not add weight until she can hold a front rack without her elbows dropping. Until then it is PVC, an empty bar, or nothing.

The loading has to be sensible

My program does not tell her what to lift, and that is on purpose. She finds her weight by effort and stops the set with two reps left in the tank. As she gets stronger, the weight goes up on its own without anyone deciding it should.

What she never gets is a target somebody made up for her. Chasing a number is how form goes, and it is how a fifteen year old ends up under something she cannot control because a program told her she should be there by week five.

What I will not tell you

I will not tell you she is going to get stronger. I will not tell you she is going to avoid injury. I do not make either of those promises, and you should be careful with anyone who does.

I am a coach. I am not a physician, a physical therapist or a registered dietitian. Get her cleared by a doctor before she starts anything. The longer answer is here.

Want to know who is telling you all this? Twelve years in this sport, first as an athlete and now as a coach. If you are going to trust me with your kid's training, you should get to read that first.

Honest fit

Who this is for, and who it is not.

Buy it if

  • She is in high school or college, roughly fourteen to twenty two
  • She stunts, and her position is backspot, base or top girl
  • There is someone qualified who can watch her lift
  • She has somewhere to lift, like a school weight room or the gym her program uses
  • You are fine with her spending eight weeks on the first six workouts if that is what her form needs

Do not buy it if

  • She is in middle school. The reason is real and I explain it below
  • Nobody qualified will be watching her lift
  • She is hurt right now, or has not been cleared by a doctor
  • You want a guarantee that she will make a team or hit a skill. I do not sell those
  • You want a printable PDF. This is not that
After you buy

What happens next.

  1. Your code arrives by email

    Usually within a couple of minutes of paying. Check spam if it is not in your inbox, because a first email from a new sender often lands there.

  2. She opens it in her browser

    Nothing to download and nothing to install. It opens on the phone or laptop she already uses.

  3. The same code works everywhere

    Progress saves to the code, not to the device, so the phone at the gym and the laptop at home stay in step.

Questions

The things you are about to ask me.

Which program do I buy?

The one for the position she stands in. Backspot, base or top girl. If she has been moved around, buy the one she is in most of the time. The training carries over more than you would think, but the program is written for the job she is actually doing.

If you have more than one cheerleader in the house, or she covers more than one position, the bundle is all three for $119.

She has never touched a weight. Is she too far behind?

No, and she is in the majority. Where she starts has nothing to do with her age. It is about how long she has actually been lifting.

If she is under six months of real lifting, she starts at the first six workouts and stays there as long as it takes. Bodyweight and light. She might spend all eight weeks in those six workouts and never touch the back half. That is a win, and I need you to hear that from me, because the pressure to finish an eight week program in eight weeks usually comes from the house and not from the kid.

How old does she need to be?

High school and college. Roughly fourteen to twenty two. Not middle schoolers.

The reason is not toughness. Girls grow fastest around eleven or twelve and are still settling until about sixteen. Through that stretch coordination temporarily gets worse and the parts of the body a loaded barbell stresses are still growing. If your kid is twelve, what she needs is practice, bodyweight work, flexibility and someone watching her technique.

I wrote that one out properly: what age can a cheerleader start lifting weights.

Does she need someone watching her?

Yes, and this is the part I will not soften. Every one of my programs assumes qualified supervision. A school strength coach, a gym coach who trains athletes, a coach at her program who actually knows lifting. Any of those.

What does not count is a video on a phone propped against a water bottle in the garage. If there is nobody in the room who can correct her, the honest answer changes, and I would rather tell you that than sell you something.

What does she actually get?

Eight weeks. Twenty four workouts, three a week. Warm-ups, built in timers and progress tracking. It opens in the browser she already uses, so there is nothing to download and nothing to install.

Progress saves to her code and not to her device, so the phone at the gym and the laptop at home stay in step.

Can I get a refund?

No, and I want to be straight with you about why. Everything unlocks the second the code arrives, so there is nothing to give back. All sales are final.

Read what you are buying before you buy it, and if the fit is wrong, email me first at hello@becoachabull.com. If something breaks on my end, your payment went through and no code arrived, or the code does not work, I will make it right.

Do you promise results?

No. I will not tell you she is going to get stronger and I will not tell you she is going to avoid injury. I do not make either of those promises, in a program or in a conversation, and you should be careful with anyone who does.

What she gets out of it depends on the work she puts in, and that part is hers.

Coachabull. Trainabull.

She is already doing the hard part. Let's get her strong enough for it.

Fifty nine dollars, eight weeks, about two dollars fifty a workout. Written for her position by someone who has stood in it.

Pick her position

Not ready yet? Get one email a week from me and buy when you are.